Lack of sincerity
by ColourVegan
Summary: Dooku decides to have an important talk with his Padawan before she faces her trials. /AU EU/


**Title:** Lack of sincerity  
**Fandom:** Star Wars EU AU  
**Main character(s):** Keyla Saloma (OFC), Dooku  
**Rating:** PG

**Summery:** Dooku decides to have an important talk with his Padawan before she faces her trials.

**Author's Note:** This ficlet/scene is an instalment in a much larger story, that I as of now only have locked away in this pretty head of mine, but given enough time I'll have it all down in writing one day.

**Disclaimer:** Star Wars doesn't belong to me – it a registered trademark of LucasArts or some such – I'm only a fan with too much imagination and a need to express it. I don't make any money of this and I only claim my own characters since everything else is obviously not my own.

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_**Lack of sincerity**_

_Jedi Temple, Coruscant – 67 BBY_

"You have been a good Padawan," Dooku told Keyla as he handed her a cup of steaming green leaf tea; they were seated in his personal quarters – she on the edge of his sleep couch and he on the chair by the computer console, "better than I feared when I took you on."

She smiled and nodded at his words while she kept uncharacteristically quiet feeling he had something important to tell her. Even though he hadn't been her Master for such a long time – only for the past two years since her first Master, the Jedi Knight Dahar Zerga, had died on their last mission together – she had learnt to read his moods well; the muscles in his neck were tense and his movements were overly calculated as if he forced himself to proceed.

"I will convey this to the Council of course," somehow she imagined he had told his last Padawan something similar – it sounded like a pep talk of sorts, "but there is something else I will tell, for your benefit alone, that I wish you keep with you in your heart: you have a flaw."

Keyla's soft smile failed, but she didn't look away from him – Master Dooku had always been blunt in a strangely graceful manner and she couldn't help but love him for his frankness – in a way it was refreshing not to be coddled like her first Master had had a tendency to do.

"We all have them," he continued – not changing the tone of his voice even though he must have seen how his words affected the Padawan. "But as long as we are aware of them they do not become failings. Your flaw is that you are too eager to please – compassion is a virtue to some degree – but never forget that in the end you are always alone and betrayal is the only thing you can be sure of."

Her Master didn't mask his smirk as her eyes widened in wonder – no one had ever really accused her of being too sympathetic – everyone from her fellow Padawans to the Grand Masters had at one point or another criticized her for being too impulsive and careless, because even though her instincts in a majority of the cases were correct there was always a possibility that they won't always be – but overly compassionate? That was a new one.

Even as she thought this a new fear entered her mind and refused to leave – she didn't like the idea of being alone. Sure, she sometimes sought out the library for some peace and quiet, but she was never truly alone even in the privacy of the record hall – never cut off from the rest of civilization in the manner her Master just now seemed to suggest was needed.

"Then who should I trust, Master?" Keyla asked as casually as she could manage and took a deliberate sip of tea for good measures.

"You only have yourself in the end," he stated coldly, trying hard not to be annoyed when he had to repeat himself.

"You and our fellow Jedi," she continued as seemingly relaxed as she had asked the previous question, "I can only expect betrayal from you?"

"For now we are allies," Dooku explained, "but we will not always be."

"And the sooner I accept this the better off I'll be," she stated, but they both knew she didn't mean what she said – he didn't comment on her lack of sincerity and she didn't comment on his lack of faith.

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